I built this for
Richard Steele, Operations Manager at Bob Hope Airport in California, USA.
Richard was a crew member of this same ship: Flying Tiger, Modex 00;
"Double Nuts." The Academy kit is an all around good kit, but in order
to enhance the model I purchased the Big Red after market metal by Eduard. You
can't go wrong with this stuff! The original plastic pieces for the armor
plating on the fuselage as well as the boarding ladder were too thick. The metal
parts add to the realism.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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For the better
part of 8 months I added detail to the interior of the fuselage. I added
electrical wiring inside (although nearly impossible to see once
finished), MRE boxes, water jugs, a 12-pack of Bud Light beer and a Maxim
magazine to add realism. The model was painted with Medium Grey, Light
Ghost Grey, and Dark Ghost Grey. I printed an instrument chart off my
printer to scale and placed it on the instrument panel on the co-pilot
side. Weathering was done by pre-shading with black paint, then
adding pastel chalks. The rotors were painted primer, gloss black,
Alclad Aluminum, then with Tamiya Nato Black. To get the "worn"
effect on the leading edge of the rotor blades I dipped a make-up sponge
in alcohol and rubbed away the dark paint on the leading edge until it
showed the aluminum under coat.
I
bought the wooden base at a local art supply store and painted it according in
modern ship deck markings. To get the anti-skid coating effect I applied
Tamiya's Diorama Texture Paint: Pavement Effect. This stuff is awesome, just brush
it on with lots of coats and many strokes and you get the same look of modern
USN decks. The deck was painted white, yellow and Tamiya German Grey. I
weathered the deck with pastel chalk. The tie-down padeyes and chains are also
metal after market products. The Flying Tigers patch was printed from my printer
onto decal paper. I masked an outline of the decal on the display base and
airbrushed Future floor wax. After the decal dried I hit it with flat dull coat.
I hope you guys enjoy the final result, I know Staff Seargent Steele did!
Rodrigo Rendon
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